


Reminiscent Days

by xshiroi_aki



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, First Kiss, First Love, First Meetings, Fluff, I kid you not there is literally no angst in here, Love at First Sight, M/M, Romance, black haired!Arima, high school!Arima, the title has literally no link too my brain's just fried and I just named it that, will rot your teeth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-20 17:48:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3659487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xshiroi_aki/pseuds/xshiroi_aki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arima Kishou. Class 2-A.<br/>Kaneki never thought seeing another's name beside his would ever make him feel this way.</p><p>Written for AriSasa Week 2015 Day 1 - Firsts/First Meeting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the AS Week Day 1 prompt - First/First Meeting. (I'm horribly late but whatever D:)
> 
> Sorry for the lackluster quality QAQ I'm quite tired now but I really wanted to write this so... And I'm already late for Days 1 and 2 ugh. Work is tiring and I'm still really exhausted now.
> 
> But I hope you enjoy (?) this and there'll be more of this fic coming up cause it _is_ actually multi-chaptered and incomplete. Later chapters will be longer I swear... I just wanted to get this up so I'm not later than I already am OTL I need to work on my punctuality...
> 
> I'm so tired I need sleep now. Sorry if it's not up to my usual standards because I literally wrote this while brain-dead but I wanted to finish at least a bit of it so badly. :(
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** I don't own Tokyo Ghoul, Tokyo Ghoul:re or Tokyo Ghoul √A, they belong to Ishida Sui. This is a non-profit document.

Their first meeting had been... unfortunate. 

Not for either of them, but for the poor souls – the infamous delinquents in their school who hung around with the wrong people more than they attended classes – who had gone after Kaneki. He had an unfortunate collision with one of them - he swore to Hide it _wasn't_ because he was too absorbed in Takatsuki-sensei's work, but his best friend thought otherwise - and they had wanted payback. 

Kaneki hadn't been able to catch his movements clearly. But one minute the delinquents were rounding up onto him - 

Only to end up on the floor at the next.

 

 _He frowned when the expected blow never came. Grimacing and squinting an eye open, he was surprised to see a black and white shadow just_ moving _-_

_And the next moment, the guy who was about to land a hit on him fell to the floor with a groan._

_Kaneki gaped as his unknown saviour stood up and tilted his head, staring at the other fuming members of the group._

_"You! What the hell?"_

_"..."_

_Apparently, his saviour did not seem keen on answering the loud and brash demands, and that only served to make the other party angrier._

_"Look out!" Before the words were out of Kaneki's mouth, before the second (idiotic, or foolishly “brave” in Kaneki’s opinion) delinquent’s fist even reached the other, he was also down on the floor, groaning in pain and clutching his calf where his saviour - really, Kaneki needed to know his name soon because this was seriously getting to his admittedly already-deficient ego - had landed a sharp and accurate kick._

_The others drew back, fear showing on their faces as the two most capable - most likely - of their group were defeated effortlessly._

_Kaneki didn't even bother with seeing the group retreat with their tails between their legs. He was too focused on his saviour._

_Black hair, smart and rectangle rimmed glasses._

_The other merely stared at him, and Kaneki blinked before realising he was still gaping. Flushing in embarrassment - not that he wasn't before - he bowed, introducing himself,_

_"Kaneki Ken, thank you for saving me, I - huh?"_

_The other was gone by the time he was done with his bow, but Kaneki wasn't bothered at all by his rudeness. It just seemed_ right _, somehow._

_He was just a little disappointed that he hadn't managed to get the other's name._

 

* * *

 

It was during his conversation with Hide, after The Incident - for he has already christened it as such - did he find out _that_ little piece of information from his best friend.

"It's Arima, that new transfer in my class, isn't it? Arima Kishou. You know, black hair with glasses and an uptight, emotionless face? I heard the other girls talking about him the other day. Apparently he's really smart and 'good looking', not sure what's going through their minds, seriously, ugh." Hide commented, frowning in thought as Kaneki mulled over the name.

Arima… Arima Kishou.

It was a nice and regal name, he thought, remembering how the other had stood tall in front of him.

Kaneki tried hard not to blush.

“…and then he – Kaneki, Kaneki? Oi, earth to Kaneki~”

He snapped out of his daze when he saw Hide waving a concerned hand at him.

“Huh? Oh, I mean – what were you saying?” The other sighed.

“You weren’t listening, were you?” He could only reply with an awkward laugh, scratching his chin.

“Anyway, as I was saying – oh look! Seems like they got the rankings for this semester up! Let’s go take a look!” Kaneki blinked at the sudden switch of topic (how Hide-like), and squeaked in surprise when his best friend grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the notice board in the main hall where a pool of students were already gathering to check the semester rankings. 

“Excuse me~” He winced as Hide navigated through the crowd while still holding onto him, causing him to bump into other students.

When they finally made it to the front of the crowd, Kaneki was rubbing his right shoulder. It was definitely going to bruise for sometime. Who had such sharp elbows anyways, ouch!

“Kaneki! Kaneki look!” Hide’s exclamation of joy made him look up.

And his breath caught in his throat.

For there the words were, typed out in clean and neat kanji characters: _Kaneki Ken, Class 2-C_ , written under the bolded words “Arts Stream”. But that wasn’t what surprised him.

No, what really caught his attention were the words “Arima Kishou, Class 2-A” printed in the column next to his. 

Looks like _someone_ topped the Science Stream.

 _Oh_ , he thought, feeling something weirdly _sentimental_ well up in his abdomen.  

It was the first time he felt this way seeing someone’s name being written beside his.

And something told him it wouldn’t be the last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... This is actually an excuse for me to start on the High School AU I've always wanted to write, and when I saw the prompts for the week I thought: why not? Might as well, since this fic will cover a lot of firsts for the both of them.
> 
> Of course I could've written Canon-compliant angsty stuff but, nah. I think we all need more fluff here :3. 
> 
> The only worry I had was Kaneki not being allowed since it is Ari _Sasa_ Week, but I dropped the person an ask on tumblr, seems like Kaneki-kun's fair game! 
> 
> I will try my best to work on the other prompts as work has been hectic and you'll know, if you had been following the news, the past weekend had been horrible for my country as our founding father passed away. I was crying like mad during the State Funeral on Sunday because although I may not agree with everything he had done, I still think he deserves all of my respect for doing what he did. 
> 
> Also, I'm going to Japan tomorrow (hurrah!) so I'm not sure when I'll get the prompts for the other days done... I'll try my best. ;w; 
> 
> Will finish this fic too I promise :3
> 
> On a bright note, I've decided to go to UToronto for College! Looks like I'll be functioning in the US/Canada timezone really soon! (12 hours difference from my current timezome wow) UwU


	2. third time’s the charm, (maybe a little too well?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or, official first introductions are made after several bouts of embarrassment. (somewhat?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I BROKE MY STREAK (If you didn't notice I've been posting/updating new stuff on the 1st of every month... I mean I didn't notice until a friend of mine pointed it out...) but today's already the third... 
> 
> Sorry this took so long. I actually finished it a gazillion years ago but wanted to finish the third chapter before posting it up. 
> 
> Then I got diagnosed with chicken pox yesterday and changed my mind. (Is it possible for vaccines to wear off? I am vaccinated and this all came so suddenly - on my last day of work as well ugh! - it's so close to my 19th birthday ugh I better recover by then!)

  
Kaneki Ken sighed as he pushed open the door leading to the rooftop. While students weren’t exactly allowed here, per se, everyone had an unspoken agreement to keep everything a hush and never tell.

It wasn’t like the school personnel really checked, after all.

 _Seems like I’ll be alone for lunch today, again_ , he thought, entering the rooftop, closing his eyes and enjoying the soft breeze. Hide has janitor duty, so he was unable to join Kaneki.

Kaneki Ken being Kaneki Ken, he has no one else to spend his lunch period with.

Stepping further onto the rooftop, he jolted in surprise as a sound came from above him. Spinning around in surprise – and almost dropping his _bentou_ in the process – he gaped at the figure who had dropped from the concrete above the door.

Arima Kishou.

He bit his lips nervously.

“Hey – hey, Arima-san? I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.” He winced at the honorific, but he could not bring himself to refer to the other as  _Arima-kun_  since they haven’t been introduced to each other.

Officially, that is. 

Arima blinked, seemingly not noticing Kaneki until he spoke up, he stared at Kaneki curiously.

Kaneki squirmed.

“It’s all right, I wasn’t doing anything much anyway.” Kaneki almost cried in relief when Arima replied, before realizing this is the first time Arima had spoken to him.

Oh, he has a pleasant voice.

“Oh, uh, and I think I have yet to really thank you properly for saving me the previous time…?”

“Ah,” Arima paused, “It was nothing, I was just passing by.”

“Mm.” He suddenly found his shoes very interesting.

 _“Come on, Kaneki! You’ll need to be more straightforward! Y’know, open up! Make friends!”_  Kaneki could hear Hide’s voice in his ears and he felt his cheeks heating up.

 _“What? How am I going to do_  that _? Hide, help me!”_  He mentally cried for his best friend.

“ – that?”

“Huh?” In his panic, he failed to pay attention to the other boy.  _Oh, crap._  He felt the infamous cold sweat forming.

Arima blinked.

“I said, aren’t you going to start eating that?” Arima gestured to the _bentou_ in Kaneki’s hand, “Lunch period is half over.”

“I – oh, of course! Uh, uh,” Kaneki flailed around, searching for a suitable place to settle down without making the situation more awkward than it already was.

“I’ll just be there… eating… then…” He trailed off finally, gesturing to a corner at the edge of the roof. Not waiting for Arima’s reply, he made his way over and settled down against the tall wired fence, wincing when his back hit and the fence rattled noisily.

 _Don’t look up, don’t look up, don’t look up_ , he mentally chanted a mantra as he dug into his _bentou_ , fervently praying that Arima would find the whole situation boring and just leave because _oh gosh_ this was all extremely awkward. 

When Kaneki finished his lunch, he looked up.

There was no one there.

He tried not to feel disappointed.

 

* * *

 

The second time they met on the rooftop during lunch period, Kaneki freaked out as the memories of the first struck him hard.

He didn’t even give Arima a chance to open his mouth before making a dash for the door, pushing past the other in the process.

Kaneki spent that day brooding and hiding from anything vaguely even resembling Arima Kishou in embarrassment.

Hide couldn’t stop laughing that day.

 

* * *

 

The third time… well, the third time was when they were introduced to each other officially. 

Kaneki had taken a deep breath and opened the door, stepping onto the rooftop fully expecting Arima to be there (did the other spend lunch period anywhere else?).

What he didn’t expect, however, was the tap on his shoulder. 

“Hey.”

“Ah!” He slapped a hand over his mouth because he did  _not_ just shriek,  _thankyouverymuch_. Turning around, he stared at the other individual in frustration.

“Must you do that everytime?” He grumbled, pouting when the other merely shrugged.

“You ran the last time, I merely wanted to make sure that you didn’t do it again.”

Kaneki blinked.

“I – ah, sorry. It’s just, it was so awkward the first time we met here so I was surprised the last time and I just… ran without thinking…” He ended with a wince, feeling pathetic in face of Arima’s blatant nonchalance.

“I see. It was awkward for you?”

“Y – yeah, sorry about that. I’m not really good around people.” He offered the other a crooked smile, scratching his chin absentmindedly.

“…Do you need me to leave, then?” Arima questioned after a moment of silence.

 _Huh?_  “N – no! Of course not! Arima-san is free to stay! Have you had lunch yet?”

“Hm? I have my lunch right here.” The other showed him a _yakisoba_ bun, and Kaneki frowned in concern.

“That’s no good! _Yakisoba_ bun isn’t a balanced meal at all! If Arima-san doesn’t mind, why don’t we share my lunch instead? I – I mean, I don’t eat much so it’s no trouble even if Arima-san takes some of it…”  _Kaneki Ken, stop digging your own grave!_

He saw a flicker of surprise across Arima’s features and watched as the other pondered over the idea.

“I suppose… if you don’t mind.”

That was how they ended up sitting together at the very same spot Kaneki had occupied during the Awkward First Rooftop Encounter, with the _bentou_ box laying between them.

Then came Problem Number Two (yes, _capitalized_ ). 

Kaneki only had one set of cutleries.

“Ah…”  _Great going, Kaneki!_  He mentally mocked as he tried to get his brain to work around this situation. How in seven hells was he going to get out of this one?

“It’s no problem, you can go ahead and eat first.” Arima supplied, unwrapping his _yakisoba_ bun and taking a bite, “You don’t have to leave that much for me. It is your lunch, anyway.” 

“I… okay…” 

They ate in silence, Kaneki squirming and sneaking glances at Arima every once in a while.

Seeing his saviour eat served as a reminder that the other was indeed human, despite his constant lack of emotions and the lone wolf tendency to be alone.

It made the other seem so normal, when he was anything but that to Kaneki.

Kaneki took in as much of the other’s features as he could; his melancholic and dark gaze, high cheekbones, black-rimmed glasses resting on a perfectly shaped nose and his light pink lips…

He looked away as soon as that observation hit home.  _What the hell, Kaneki?!_

He’s been doing a lot of self-berating lately. Didn’t he read somewhere that it was bad for one’s mental health?

“…I’m done.” Kaneki murmured softly, not wanting to disturb the peaceful silence between them but desperately needing a distraction from his own thoughts. 

Arima took the offered chopsticks and lunch box silently. Kaneki held his breath as he watched Arima scrutinize the contents before taking a tentative bite.

“…! It’s good.” A grin broke out on his face at Arima’s praise.

“Thank you, Kaneki Ken.” The stoic teen then continued after a pause. 

“You’re welcome, Arima-san.” Kaneki felt that if he smiled any harder he’d be splitting his face apart.

In his elation, he never noticed how Arima Kishou knew his name.

Hence, he never wondered either.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Arima. You - you stalker. lol. 
> 
> If you didn't notice, the chapters are not going to flow very well because they will be written in segments - basically bits and pieces of the highschool setting I have for the TG characters. I will try to establish Arima and Kaneki's relationship first (chronologically), but if the plunnie strikes, I will just post spontaneous parts up :P So no promises. Sorry!
> 
> Anyways, because I'm on Acyclovir, I'm basically confined to my house for a week (not that I'd wanna go out looking like I had a second puberty outbreak when I didn't even get my first - lucky me, or unlucky me?) and I have several WIPs for this stupid hellish OTP unfinished.
> 
> Gonna try to finish them.
> 
>  
> 
> __  
> ~~(The things I do for my darlings... aside from killing them off)~~  
> 


	3. In which Kishou rhymes with Kishi, and Kaneki becomes aware.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arima saves Kaneki, again. And our dear protagonist seemed to have realised something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took forever... Sorry lol it seems like my fluff muse died with Arima. I'm still mourning his death but I think with recent developments (damn you Furuta, damn you) we could use some light-hearted things. 
> 
> Doesn't mean I'll stop writing angst for this pair. I've been re-reading the manga and thinking about some things. One day something will appear from me again.
> 
> This isn't beta'd and I'm a little tired xOx - will probably edit it as I find mistakes.

He wondered just what he’d done to anger the deities higher up. Mentally groaning in frustration, Kaneki bit his lips and stared straight ahead, beyond the bullies surrounding him. The same group from the other day.

“Wasn’t Kaneki-kun the one who got first across the level?” The leader questioned his lackeys, and Kaneki mentally rolled his eyes. _Um, technically for the Arts stream_ , since _he_ \- he couldn’t even think about his name without getting flustered - had taken the spot for science.

“Well, we have a proposal for you, Kaneki- _kun_ ,” From the corner of his eye, Ken could see the leader - a guy a good head taller than him (probably around _his_ height?) - crack his knuckles (seriously? They weren’t twelve anymore, what is wrong with people?) with an ugly grin on his face.

They’d probably waited until Hide’s cleaning duty for the day. Resigning himself to whatever demands they have for him - he’s learned that it was a lot less messy this way, and not because he was afraid of them - after all, the physical threats only worked for a while before he became immune anyway.

“I don’t think Kaneki-kun has or wants to listen to any of your proposals.”

Ken’s shoulders shot up straight at that voice (oh god, why is he everywhere I go?!), feeling a familiar nervousness creep into his stomach and a soft warmth adorning his face.

His potential bullies looked up at the voice, irritated, before they realised who they were looking at - he supposed it was difficult to forget the person who’d curb-stomped them just a week ago. The leader paled (Kaneki refused to admit that he’d felt a small surge of smugness at that), before he and his groupies broke into a stutter.

“Ah, it’s - it’s you from the other day!” Head Mob-kun (he needed to stop borrowing online terms from Hide, or maybe Hide should stop forcing him to use them because he thinks Kaneki needs to have more variety in his life - he begged to differ. Literature wasn’t boring at all) braced himself and strutted by Kaneki, heading towards the individual who’d spoken.

He refused to turn around, for the fear of the light heat on his face going a flaming red (thankfully, the sun was setting so no one seemed to have noticed). While he had gotten used to Arima’s presence around him (sometimes at weird timings), he still didn’t know how to properly interact with the other, especially since his stomach seemed to have been conditioned to start doing flip flops whenever they were in close proximity.

His brain didn’t help either.

_Butterflies dancing around flowers in full bloom, a vibrant start to the season of Spring -_

Okay, _okay_. He got it. Shut up, brain, thankyouverymuch.

“I was just looking to settle the score from the other day,” What score, _he_ wiped the floor with you. Curb-stomped, or KO’d, as Hide would say 

Ayato-kun would’ve scrunched up his nose in distaste and snap about how they were rubbish sore losers who just deserve to be beaten up again. Touka would actually just do it…without the verbal beat-down.

“Shit!”

And it seems like he - Arima-san, there, he’d said it (he felt the blush on his face become a little darker) - was the same.

“Big bro!”

The lackeys rushed by him to pick up their boss, before spitting out a “You’ll pay for this!” towards Ken’s savior, and then proceeded to withdraw (with their tails between their legs, Ken presumed).

His savior, hm?

_Like a knight in shining armor._

Kami, he needs to stop reading so many fairytales - not his fault, since the kids in the orphanage he volunteers at are always pushing him to read them stories - and maybe stop coming up with these comparisons.

…Come to think of it, doesn’t _kishi_ rhyme with Kishou? (He knows that’s not the way the other’s name is written in kanji, but it didn’t stop his traitorous, _traitorous_ brain from making the connection.)

Now he’s probably never going to forget it.

“…You sure do attract a lot of trouble, don’t you?” Was that a hint of teasing in the other’s normally stoic voice? Kaneki sighed, finally turning around to face Arima -

Oh, _no._

Arima was smiling. 

Not according to normal people standards, no. But Kaneki had spent a lot (maybe too much?) time observing the other whenever he could these days, he knew how the other looked like when he was feeling bored, angry or happy.

Just a small lift of his lips, but the other’s eyes shone a little more when he was amused.

And his stomach started doing The Flips again.

_“Are you sure you don’t have a crush on him?” Hide nudged him with narrowed eyes and a conspiring grin. “I don’t mind at all you know, if that’s what you’re concerned about!”_

_Kaneki flushed, poking the other’s offending arm, “No, I’m not!”_

_Touka snorted as she passed by their table, “From what I can see, you are, you idiot.”_

_Ken made a noise of protest, meekly. After all, even if he did, there’s no way Arima would return his feelings. Besides, he totally did not have a crush on him - he’s only known him (barely) for a week!_

Ah, maybe he does after all. 

He thinks Touka and Hide might be running a betting pool around his non-existent love life. 

Arima was still waiting for a reply.

“Oh, well…” He reached up to rub at the back of his neck nervously. “It’s only them, and usually they don’t give me a lot of problems when Hide’s around…”

A soft chuckle (did he… Kaneki thinks he might be imagining things), “So Nagachika-kun is your bodyguard?”

“In some form, yes.” Kaneki bit his lips to prevent himself from laughing (whether it was from the happiness of seeing Arima or having an actual, non-awkward conversation with him, he didn’t know), watching as Arima narrowed his eyes in amusement, before turning his attention to something behind Ken. He could hear Hide’s distinct footsteps approaching them. 

“Oi~ Kaneki!” Hide clapped his shoulder, before turning to look at Arima. “Yo, Arima-kun!”

Haaah, that’s Hide for you. Always being able to make friends easily.

“Nagachika-kun,” the blue-haired boy nodded in reply. “It seems like Sakamoto and the others were giving Kaneki-kun” wait, when did he become _Kaneki-kun_?! “trouble again.” Hide grimaced, before turning to look at him with a frown.

“Again? Do those guys never learn, ugh.” Hide rolled his eyes, “And I assume you ‘rescued’ him?” He nudged Kaneki discreetly with his elbow and Kaneki mentally rolled his eyes, feeling a familiar flush crawl up his face again.

“Something like that, yes.” Arima tilted his head to the side slightly, and Kaneki watched as his dark blue (his hair was dark blue, not black like what Hide had said, Kaneki realised) tresses - he did have hair that was slightly long for a guy - danced along with the motion.

The other was beautiful.

“Thanks for that!” Hide grinned, “We do have to get going for now, though. This guy here,” He pointed towards Ken, “Has volunteer duties in an hour.”

…Which had completely slipped his mind. Ken felt his eyes widen in shock as Hide broke out into a loud laughter.

“I - I have to go!” Voice bordering on frantic, he bowed at Arima, before looking at the other straight in the eye (he vaguely wondered if there was a word on this earth that he could use to describe his eyes, and he found himself short on them).

“Thank you for just now, Arima-san.” The other boy nodded and Kaneki turned around to grab Hide - who’d been watching the scene with a large grin - before pulling him away. 

“Kaneki-kun.” Stopping at Arima’s voice, he turned back to look at the other in question.

“You can drop the formalities, you know. I don’t mind.”

And there goes his stomach again - he wondered if he’d ever stop feeling like this. 

“… Will do, Arima-kun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you ask, yes, I aged Touka up. Ayato is still younger than her. 
> 
> Mob: for those who are familiar with pixiv/Japanese SNS speak, it's basically background characters that don't matter (usually some random self-created character to fill spaces).


End file.
